Bryan Cranston has 'Writer's Block': Watch This Spontaneously Produced Short Film

While on the set of the Tze Chun/Bryan Cranston thriller Cold Comes the Night in 2012, Hurricane Sandy rolled into New York. This led to some downtime on set, and that's when Cranston -- sport that he is -- came up with a short film contest: the best script submitted by a production assistant gets to produce it with Cranston in the lead role. Click through to watch the film that was born from the contest and read our interview with director Brandon Polanco.

I had been writing all night and I literally was like: "I don't even really know what this is, I just birthed this thing out of the night onto this paper, so here you go..."

NFS: Right place at the right time?

Brandon: We went into production on Cold Comes the Night in the last week of October, and that's when we found out that the hurricane was coming our way. It was the 6th day in that week that Bryan proposed the idea of making a short film, because we were going on a long weekend due to the hurricane. I found out that night and wrote 1 page, and then the next day I woke up and I just started writing. So I had about a day to write it, and then the next day I gave it to him. He didn't know whose names were on the scripts, he went and read and came back in an hour and selected it. And then as soon as he selected it we had 3 hours until we started shooting. So it happened one thing after the other in a span of 2 days.

We shot with him for one night for about 4 hours. Then we had to go back to work on Cold Comes the Night, and then we shot with him again. So I had 2 nights that I really got to shoot with him.

NFS: Your background?

Brandon: I went to school and studied theater at Stephen F. Austin State University and got a bachelor's in directing theater. I studied in Europe for a year in London and Madrid. For me it's kinda always been about performance; it's the thing that's nurtured me -- to always want to be an actor. When I was 8 years old I did my first play -- a Titanic play. I was bitten pretty early on by the acting bug and I focused on that for a long time. When I came back from Europe I decided to move to NYC and that's when everything changed in a good way.

Life became about what it means to be an artist and what it means to create, so I started writing. I always wanted to make movies, but I never knew how to make a movie. I was always about plays, but I was bored with theater for a while and thought, "Well, why don't I become a production assistant and make money as I try to figure out film?" So I've just been making short films and working in production in various positions and just submerging myself in that world.

NFS: Were you intimidated at the prospect of directing Cranston? Did you ever get cerebral, over-thinking things or were you totally in the moment?

Brandon: It was all about being in the moment, allowing yourself to be like: "Okay, this is happening. Liftoff." It was a series of moments that all transpired into this one moment. When he took the script I was exhausted, I had been writing all night and I literally was like, "I don't even really know what this is, I just birthed this thing out of the night onto this paper, so here you go..." He comes back in an hour and starts talking about 2 other scripts -- there were 3 scripts given in total. He said one was too simple and the other he didn't wanna do, so he pushed them aside and started talking about my script.

I was like, "Wait, what? Mine?" And then he started asking all these questions that I had to answer since no one else had written it. I had a list of notes from him and felt like I needed to go back into the writing room and keep going at it. But right before I did that, I had this one moment where I went and stood out in the woods -- our hotel was connected to this really amazing forest with trees and colors -- and I sat there on a rock for a good 10-15 minutes and I meditated. I just thought "Okay. I'm just gonna enjoy this for a second." And then I just went in and started writing and started working with him. We got Shane Valcich -- who is like a photography brother -- to DP and we just start gelling ideas. And we were like "Just do things, just make."

"I think it's just staying focused and putting out work and hopefully people will find it relevant."

NFS:Do you think Bryan started the contest because didn't feel challenged with the current production or was it just because of the storm?

Brandon: Bryan is a real artist, a real actor, a real storyteller. He likes to keep creating. I think he was just inspired by the moment. We were in this little filmmaker bubble, we were out in the woods in the Catskills, so there was really nothing to do. He's a special guy and a really talented person, but I think he's also just someone who he wanted to keep creating in the downtime.

NFS: How did the script change over the 2-day period?

Brandon: It was fun. It was re-writing as we went along. Bryan gave me ideas when we first selected the script. We got detailed points about the action, like, "What did the scene in the theater mean?" It was great being able to bounce ideas off of him. There were times when I would have an idea when we were working on Cold Comes the Night and it was like "Oh yeah, we need to get back to work on the movie that we're working on..."

NFS: What's next? How are you taking advantage of this random opportunity and what have you learned from it?

Brandon: A piece of advice that I got from Bryan that I keep is "just keep making" -- I have a short film called Passing By that I'm releasing next month. I have a web series called Pride that I'm releasing. I think it's just staying focused and putting out work and hopefully people will find it relevant. People can get their hands on a camera and tell a story. It's a moment I'll always get to hold onto. The amount of response has been great, so I'm just really grateful.

...

A big thanks to Brandon for sharing his story. Check out his work at the links below and leave a comment with your thoughts on the film.

So there's a little noise. So what? It wasn't horrible, and it certainly didn't merit the "shot on an iPhone" comment. I guarantee no average film viewer would even notice it. The truth is that you and Adrian are desperately looking for something to criticize because you are jealous that this guy was lucky enough to be allowed to shoot a short film with one of the hottest A list actors around. You missed the real message here, which is that you should create as much as you can, with whatever opportunity you get. Ask yourself this honestly; Would you turn down the chance to direct Bryan Cranston in a short film because you didn't have Hollywood lighting and there might be some noise in the footage?

I love the noise they have on the footage, it gives a "shot on film" look rather than a shot on iphone like the other idiot said . This movie is fuckin great and personally I would sell my soul to the devil to make a film with Bryan Cranston, man this is Heiseinberg, the light guy was under the blue meth effect !!! "Pink Yellow Blue I'll take them all" !!!

C'mon guys. Very rushed production, no real crew, probably access to very little lighting gear, no rehearsal time, needing to travel to various locations... It takes time, energy and crew to light well and efficiently.

On a positive note, I really enjoyed Cranston's acting. He's very fun to watch.

I participated in a 48 hour short movie contest this week end and I wouldn't say that the lighting is poor. It matches the run-and-gun shooting style. It is amazing how much creativity you can put into a project when you are limiting yourself in the equipment you are using. Take a look at the 3 min teaser and you see that they used mostly practical lights and I think that's a good choice.
However I'm not convinced by the plot and I find the restaurant sequence to be a bit weird - I didn't get it. But either way a very interesting project ! Big thumbs up to Cranston to help young filmmakers get films in production !

I think the story had great emotional depth. I remember being at NYFA and shooting a story similar in it's dream vision where it began in the middle with a potential drowning. One did not know if the drownie had lived or was dreaming of his heroine removing him from the watery grave. Our vision was to be linear in concept per our assignment. My story was understood in a linear process and presented in a dream fashion in order to capture the grand scope of the devastation being, love lost. The concept of your film is powerful as well as its impact on the senses. Great work all around and good luck going forward. I will take Brian's advice as well and get myself making product. Thanks for sharing.

it's a kind of fun piece. Nicely done for the time they had to shoot it. It's interesting what one can come up with when on 'down time'. I was touring a play back in 2008 and the cast decided to shoot a spoof ghost story in this old house we were in. It was my first gig as a director/camera/writer/editor, shot on a crappy camcorder with terrible sound, but gave me the film making bug. Shot over 3 nights after the show... Sometimes confined / random / just-do-it projects are a good springboard into something. Have a look if you fancy: https://vimeo.com/5313842

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